The guy is raving, if he had imported it, he was going to get ripped off by private corporations not by the government.

There are no duties on importing US agricultural equipment parts into Canada, HST is max 15% so $1.50 extra. At $10 it would fit under the de minimis tax/duty value which is CAD$20, so he wouldn't even have to pay tax on it and no broker is necessary.

What did him in was the shipping cost plus UPS and a few other carriers charging totally unnecessary $20+ brokerage fees for low value shipments.